See Also: BODY

1. Body … as meager as a pole —Leslie Thomas
2. Lean and thin as a fallen leaf —George Garrett
3. Lean as a bird dying in the snow —Émile Zola
4. Lean as a herring —Irwin Shaw
5. Lean as a shadow or ghost —George Garrett
6. Lean as a snake —John Berryman
7. Lean as a whipcord —Norman Mailer
8. Lean as El Greco’s Saint Andres —Harry Prince
9. Lean as the dead branch of a tree —Frank Swinnerton
10. Lean as Ugulino —Dylan Thomas

    The comparison refers to Count Ugolino of Pisa, imprisoned and starved to death in Dante’s Inferno.

11. Leaner than wasps —Phyllis McGinley

    McGinley’s comparison referred to the stone lions at the doors of the New York Hispanic Society building.

12. Looked beaky and thin, like a bird —Mavis Gallant
13. Looking as skinny and blue as a jailhouse tattoo —Tom Robbins
14. Looks as if he’s been carved from a shadow —T. Coraghessan Boyle
15. [A red line in the sky at dawn] narrow as a needle —John D. MacDonald
16. Skinny as a fence post —George Garrett
17. Slender as a flower’s stem —Arthur Sherburne Hardy
18. Slim and evasive as a needle’s eye —Paige Mitchell

    See Also: ELUSIVENESS

19. Slim as a cat —Sue Grafton
20. Slim as a little serpent —Anton Chekhov
21. Slim as a mast —Geoffrey Chaucer
22. Slim … like a twig stripped of bark —John Updike
23. So skinny he looked as though, if you shook him, his bones would sound like one of those Javanese musicians who play on coconut shells —Leslie Hanscomb, Newsday, September 11, 1986

    The thin man so described is Frank Sinatra in his early days.

24. So skinny he looked like he’d been pulled through a keyhole —Fred Allen
25. So skinny you clack like a floating crap game when you walk down the street —Russell Baker
26. So thin that he was like a clothed skeleton —Jean Rhys
27. So thin that if you touch her back you can feel the ribs, like ridges on a roll-top desk —Leslie Garis, New York Times Magazine, February 8, 1987

    The person thus described is author Joan Didion.

28. (She remained) thin as a baseball contract —Norman Keifetz
29. Thin and clear as green leaves in April —Elinor Wylie
30. Thin and quiet as shadows —George Garrett

    See Also: SILENCE

31. Thin as a bean pole —Anon
32. Thin as a cobweb —Jean Garrigue
33. Thin as a dime —American colloquialism, attributed to New England
34. Thin as a file —Reynolds Price
35. Thin as a moonbeam —Max Apple
36. Thin as an empty dress —Marge Piercy
37. Thin as an exclamation mark —Anon
38. Thin as an onion shoot —Gloria Norris
39. Thin as a pauper’s wallet —Anon
40. Thin as a pencil line —Mary Lee Settle
41. Thin as a rail —American colloquialism, attributed to New England
42. [A heron] thin as a safety pin —Susan Minot
43. Thin as a scythe —Donald Justice
44. Thin as a sheet (his mother came to him) —John Berryman
45. Thin as a sheeted ghost —Stevie Smith
46. Thin as a thread —William H. Hallhan
47. Thin as a switch —Mark Helprin
48. Thin as a thermometer —Albert L. Weeks
49. Thin as a walking stick —Doris Grumback
50. (The steering wheel is … ) thin as a whip —John Updike
51. Thin as a whisper —Anon
52. Thin as a wire —Raymond Chandler
53. Thin as breath —Sharon Sheehe Stark
54. Thin as chop-sticks —Rumer Godden
55. [Partitions] thin as crackers —Tom Robbins
56. Thin as linguini —Anon
57. [Children] thin as little white-haired ghosts —Carson McCullers
58. (The old man looked) thin as paper —Richard Ford

    An extension made popular in New England is: “Thin as the paper on the wall.”

59. Thin as pared soap —Sharon Olds

    In the poem in which this appears, the simile is extended to include breasts “As opalescent as soap bubbles.”

60. Thin as phantoms —Thomas Hardy
61. (Her face, without make-up, was an oval of white that looked as) thin as porcelain —Paul Theroux
62. [TV antennas] thin as skeletons —Italo Calvino
63. Thin as tapers —T. Coraghessan Boyle
64. Thin as the edge of the moon —Stephen Vincent Benét
65. Thin as the girl who didn’t have enough to her to itch —Anon
66. Thin as the girl who swallowed the pit of an olive and was rushed to a maternity ward —Anon
67. Thin as the homeopathic soup that was made by boiling the shadow of a pigeon that had starved to death —Abraham Lincoln, October 13, 1852 speech
68. Thin as the line between self-confidence and conceit —Anon
69. Thin as the skin seaming a scar —Sylvia Plath
70. Thin as tissue —H. E. Bates
71. (Skin) thin as tracing paper —John Updike
72. Thin … like a skeleton —Ann Petry